Description

I text you how much

it hurts not to see you.

Here are poems about love, loss, mothers, fathers, God, rain and growing up. About all the things that poems are always about, in fact, with one crucial difference. Instead of being remembered from an adult distance, these poems were written by a diverse group of teenagers direct from their own experience. So as well as being clever, funny and moving, they are also immediate – they go straight to the heart like a text from a friend.

Most of these poems are by pupils from a single multicultural comprehensive school, Oxford Spires Academy. Many have already been social media sensations: some students’ poems, for instance, have been retweeted over 100,000 times.

A donation from the sale of this book will be made to the charity Asylum Welcome.

Publisher Review

Praise for England: Poems from a School: 'Not just good for school children, but great by any standard' - Phillip Pullman 'These young poets are writing their lives with heartbreaking immediacy' - Imtiaz Dharker 'I doubt I will read anything as moving for a very long time' - Evie Wyld 'Exceptional. All unflinching truths and zero pretentiousness' - Nathan Filer 'Helping us to see the world with a startling freshness, these lovely poems fill me with hope' - Sarah Howe